Now for Grissom and Catherine and more of everyone and the case. By the way...How do they spell Catherine's daughter's name? Is it Lyndsey, Lindsey, Lyndsay, Lyndsy...For now I'll just spell it like my friend's name, and if I'm wrong I'll correct it. Please read and review.


Telling Dad and Moving On: Part 5
By LissaMarie
September 9-14, 2002


"Gil?" Catherine asked with a sigh for the fifth time since she came into his office. His chair was turned away from her, but she knew he was awake and should be able to hear her. She was well aware that Grissom had a tendency to get lost in the little world that he created years ago in his mind, but after 5 minutes of repeating his name, it was getting ridiculous. Catherine raised her voice slightly. "Yo, Grissom!"

Gil turned around in his chair. "Yes, Catherine?" He obviously didn't know she had been standing there.

"Where were you?" she question exasperated. She made her way to his guest chair and plopped down in it tiredly.

"Right here," he told her slowly and needlessly.

"Well, yeah, but your mind was a million and a half miles away. I must have called your name 10...okay, 6 times before I got your attention," Catherine explained rotating her shoulders and cracking her neck. "Everyone has been gone for a few hours and the day shift is here working on the case. We should both try to get some sleep before we pass out over a microscope."

"I guess you're right. I doubt I'll be able to sleep, but I should try to rest." He sat for a second and added an afterthought. "And maybe take a shower." He looked down at his dirt covered pants in disgust before standing up and stretching a little. He grabbed his jacket off of his rack and led the way from his office. "Has anyone did the facial reconstruction on the girl in the morgue?"

"Day shift's working on it. Once they're done, they'll run it by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Neither one of us is going to be any good to anybody if we drop at their feet," Catherine told him. "Don't worry. I'm sure Ecklie has everything under control."

"That's supposed to make me NOT worry?" Gil gave her a half smile, and she chuckled.

"I see your point," Catherine conceded as Gil held the glass door open for her. They were out in the parking lot, and she turned to him. "Go home and get some sleep. You look like Hell."

"Gee, thank you for that keen observation," Gil told her sarcastically with a half smile playing on his lips. The smile disappeared, and he became serious once again. "Do you do it, too?"

Catherine looked at him as if he were out of his mind. "What are you talking about?" She kept her voice low matching her tone with Grissom's.

"The kids. Do you see Lyndsay when you look at them?" Grissom frowned when he asked, and his gaze left Catherine's eyes and strayed over the other vehicles in the lot.

She was starting to understand. "Every time. Even though my training tells me not to personalize any cases, as a parent, I can't help it. We you thinking about Kait out there?"

"I saw her as a little girl just lying there in the dirt. I blinked, and it was a skeleton again. I read the report Kaite handed in, and I found myself thinking about how the parents would react when they found out and then how I would react. I don't get this way. I never have. I don't understand why this is happening to me now."

"You and your daughter are closer than you've ever been. It's no wonder you are feeling things more like a parent than just a scientist."

Grissom stood there quietly for a moment before moving back over at Catherine. He smiled a little and led the way toward her car opening the door for her. He knew she always forgot to lock her car door when she arrived at work since she was usually in a hurry after trying to get Lyndsay to sleep or doing something else parents of 7 (or 8) year old girls do and not getting to leave her house until 20 minutes before shift started. She should definitely be glad that she worked at a police station.

Catherine smiled at him brightly and climbed in. The door stayed open, and Gil didn't move. "You won't be able to figure it out. Just don't keep it in your head. It'll drive you nuts."

"Thanks, Cath. I'll see you later." He closed her car door carefully and stepped back as she pulled away with a wave. He walked over to his truck and climbed in with a clearer mind knowing it was more normal to feel what he was feeling than to not be feeling it. I made him feel like a real father.

For the very first time since Kaite had been born.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Kait woke up alone. It wasn't something she should find unfamiliar since she had been waking up that way for 28 years, but since she and Nick had gotten together she had become accustomed to having arms tight around her pulling her back when she tried to climb out of bed. Without the hassle of the an argument of logic vs. a sleepy Nick, she got up and headed toward the main room area.

Nick was sitting at the kitchen table with the various crime scene photos from the dig site. There were a few dozen there, and those were only what he was able to collect before leaving the lab. He knew for a fact that there were still people out at the crime scene since Catherine had called the apartment before she left work to give him an update. He was staring intently at one general scenario photograph of the stretch of land. He could see the stake and rope grids around each area where remains had been found, and the dozens of officers and personnel hard at work. He felt Kait enter the room before he saw or heard her.

"Good morning, sunshine," Nick said to her without looking up.

Kait smiled. "How do you do that?" She went up behind him to squeeze his shoulders.

Nick leaned back his head and urged her lips to his in a sweet, chaste good morning kiss. He didn't bother answering just turned his attention back to the file in front of him and knew Kait would understand his unspoken invitation to join him. He knew he was right when he heard her sit down in the chair next to him.

"How much sleep did you get?" Kait asked concerned as she flipped through various copies of scribbled field notes from a few officers.

"A few hours," Nick told her. At her incredulous look, he relented. "An hour. Maybe. I'm not really sure."

"You could have woke me up," she whispered as she read the thoughts of the men that had unburied a field full of children's remains.

"I wanted to be alone for a little while." Nick eyed Kait. "About what I said earlier...It was a long time ago. It might have changed me, but I'm over it now."

"No, you're not," Kait challenged. "You've buried it, yes, but you never got over it because you never worked through it. I don't know how you can get it behind you, but you can't just try to pretend it's not there--That it never happened. That can only work for so long before it finally drives you out of your mind." She spoke in a hushed but urgent tone and ran her fingers over the material of his sweatpants at his knee.

"Kaite, I have a handle on it. I'm doing just fine. I just want to get through this case and find the son-of-a-bitch that did this. I don't want to talk about my feelings or re-examine my past. I told you why this case gets to me...Why can't you just leave it at that?" Nick's eyes locked with hers, pleading with her to understand.

"Fine," Kait grudgingly agreed. She turned her attention back to the file wondering when Nick was going to finally let her in. She was still thinking about it when she heard Nick leave the room and turn on the shower. "I guess we're going into work." She mumbled as she went to lay out clothes for herself and to see if anything Nick had brought with him would need ironing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


"So you just got here?" Greg asked Nick and Kait glancing back and forth between them.

Nick looked at him strangely. "Yes."

Greg's eyebrow's rose. "Together?"

"We live in the same neighborhood and decided to save on gas," Kait explained levelly. She smiled when she noticed how Greg blushed, knowing what he had been thinking and that he no longer believed it. She was well aware of the crush Greg had developed on her over the months that she had been in Vegas but quickly decided that if she ignored it, it might go away. It hadn't.

"We have a name for the little girl. Annette Manning. She was 8 years old and went missing from her home just outside of Vegas almost 2 months ago. Her parents are on their way here," Greg explained sullenly.

Kait blinked. "That was quick." She saw Nick nod in agreement.

"Almost everyone with the department is on this case. There are even a few outside specialist from the university and other departments that have been brought in to help out. The work goes by a lot quicker when there are more people to do it." Greg turned around on his stool to get back to doing what he was doing when Kait and Nick had first entered the lab signaling the end of the conversation. His visitors got the point and left.

Kait was silent the whole walk to the break room which was odd for her since she had a tendency to dislike silence when she wasn't alone in it. She had always found it disconcerting to be with someone in the same room with someone with neither person talking. It was uncomfortable for her, but having this case on her mind, conversation was almost impossible for her. It was one thing to have the nameless little girl in front of her, but to see her parents' faces and to have to tell them what had happened to their child--their daughter, Annette--was something else altogether.

Nick was the first to speak after they sat down. "So are you going in for the interview?"

Kait, startled by the sudden interruption, looked up quickly. She thought for a moment before speaking. "I should. It's better they hear exactly what happened to there daughter from the person that examined her body than from someone that only read my report. I'll be able to better answer their questions."

Nick's hand that had been resting on Kait's was suddenly removed, and she frowned at the movement. Only when she heard someone enter the room did she understand.

"Hi, daddy," she said without turning around to face him.

"Hello, Kaite," Grissom responded getting himself some coffee after shooting his daughter and her friend--his friend too, he supposed--strange looks. He took a sip before saying anything else. "The parents are here. Brass hasn't told them anything yet. They're in the interrogation room."

Kait sighed and closed her eyes. She pulled herself up standing and opened her eyes to see Nick looking at her in concern. She smiled and turned to her father who lifted his mug to her. She took it from his hand, taking a sip, hoping to prolong having to do the inevitable.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Sorry that it's been so long. I really did mean to get this out sooner. I just had a bad week (I got a B on my Trig test--never got lower than an A in math before--and I think I failed my first AP Euro test--I've never failed a test before). I guess I've been a little depressed, but I'm over it. As Sara Sidle's parents always said, I need to "Relax". I really, really do. Thanks for sticking with me, and please read and review.